Dear Colleagues,

CITES and ATAG ( http://www.cites.illinois.edu/uc/atag.html ) would like to make an announcement regarding the UC Project.

Recently we were informed by our telephone service provider that the thirty thousand temporary phone numbers required during the UC bridge period would not be available until February.  Without these temporary phone numbers, campus users would not have the option to fully test the new Lync phone system during the bridge period.  After this was immediately brought to the attention of ATAG, the committee reinforced their commitment to ensuring that the ease of transition for campus users was a high priority.

Thus, ATAG decided to change the bridge period activation date from January 9, 2012 to February 13, 2012.  This will still allow campus users to test and acquaint themselves with the new Lync phone system for more than three months before the old phone system is removed.  Also, this does not change the overall project timeline as we are committed to our goal of providing campus with innovative technology to support teaching and research, while also saving costs for our university through an expeditious rollout of Unified Communications.

Details about the Unified Communications Bridge Period can be found here:

http://cites.illinois.edu/uc/uc-bridge.html

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact CITES at consult@illinois.edu or 217-244-7000.

We would like to thank campus for the partnership you have already shown throughout the first phase of this project, and we look forward to completing this roll-out so that campus can truly experience the full benefits of Unified Communications.

Sincerely,

The UC Program Office